Frequently Asked Questions

WORKING WITH ME

  • I work with Australian tourism operators: the people running tours, experiences, accommodation, hospitality venues and attractions. Usually the owner is still in the day-to-day, knows the business should be making more than it is, and is paying more to the OTAs than feels right. If that sounds like you, we will get on well.

  • Neither, in the usual sense. I have spent over 20 years inside tourism as an operator, not a consultant. I have owned and run three tourism businesses, carried the risk, made the payroll, and paid the OTA commissions myself. So when we work together you get someone who has sat in your chair, not someone who studied the industry from the outside.

  • Two, depending on the size of your business. The Tourism Profit Program is twelve weeks of 1:1 coaching for operators turning over up to $1M. Business Improvement Coaching is the longer engagement for operators turning over $1M and above. Both are 1:1 with me, and both start with the Tourism Business Health Check.

  • I work with Australian tourism operators: the people running tours, experiences, accommodation, hospitality venues and attractions. Usually the owner is still in the day-to-day, knows the business should be making more than it is, and is paying more to the OTAs than feels right. If that sounds like you, we will get on well.

  • Neither, in the usual sense. I have spent over 20 years inside tourism as an operator, not a consultant. I have owned and run three tourism businesses, carried the risk, made the payroll, and paid the OTA commissions myself. So when we work together you get someone who has sat in your chair, not someone who studied the industry from the outside.

  • Two, depending on the size of your business. The Tourism Profit Program is twelve weeks of 1:1 coaching for operators turning over up to $1M. Business Improvement Coaching is the longer engagement for operators turning over $1M and above. Both are 1:1 with me, and both start with the Tourism Business Health Check.

PROFIT AND PRICING

  • This is the most common question I get, and the answer is almost always the same. You can tell me your revenue to the dollar. You cannot tell me which of your products is actually profitable once you account for the commission, the staff and the cost of running a smaller-than-average group. Busy hides a lot. When you look at profit per product instead of total revenue, the picture usually changes. That is where the work starts.

  • A few signs. You are busier than last year but the bank balance does not show it. You have not reviewed your prices in over a year while your costs have climbed. You do not know your true cost per booking by channel. You are paying 25% or more to the OTAs and you suspect it is costing you more than it is worth. If two or more of those ring true, there is profit leaking somewhere, and the Health Check is built to find where.

  • Know your numbers first. When did you last review prices, and what have your input costs done since? If your costs have moved 20% and your prices have not moved at all, you have been absorbing that out of your margin. Before you reprice, work out your real gross margin and your contribution margin per product. Then you are raising prices from a position of knowing, not guessing.

  • Very normal, and it is one of the first things we fix. Most operators track revenue closely and never get to product-level profit. So the popular tour everyone books might be earning very little once the guide, the commission and the fixed costs come out, and a quieter product might be carrying the business. Until you know which is which, you are making decisions in the dark.

OTAS AND DIRECT BOOKINGS

  • You do not cut the OTAs overnight, they bring you bookings you would not otherwise get. You shift the mix over time. First you work out what an OTA booking actually costs you versus a direct booking. Then you build the direct channels that move bookings across slowly: your website, your email list, repeat guest mechanics, local partnerships. At Aquaduck I shifted online sales from 4% to 47% of turnover. It took focus, not luck.

  • More than the commission line, once you add it up properly. There is the commission itself, then the discounting and the loss of the direct relationship with the guest. The number worth knowing is your true cost per booking by channel, side by side. Most operators are surprised when they see a direct booking and a Viator booking next to each other for the first time.

  • Start with the reason a guest would choose you over the operator down the road, and say it clearly everywhere. Then make your website easy to book, no more than about four steps, and ask every happy guest for a review. Build an email list and use it. None of this needs an ad budget. It needs a clear message and a bit of consistency.

  • Very normal, and it is one of the first things we fix. Most operators track revenue closely and never get to product-level profit. So the popular tour everyone books might be earning very little once the guide, the commission and the fixed costs come out, and a quieter product might be carrying the business. Until you know which is which, you are making decisions in the dark.

CASH FLOW AND SEASONALITY

  • Tourism cash flow is brutal because the costs do not stop when the bookings do. I suggest a cash flow tracker you look at every month, not once a quarter. Know what is in the bank and what is coming. Put your tax, PAYG and GST aside in a separate account every month no matter what, so it is there when the bill lands. And build a runway target so the off-season is a plan, not a fright.

  • Before you discount, build packages. A discount trains people to wait for the next one and chips away at your brand. A package adds value without dropping your price. If you run accommodation, bundle a few nights with an experience so you are promoting two things, not one. Local partnerships work well here too. There is almost always a way to lift off-season demand that does not involve slashing your rate.

MY STORY

  • Yes, three of them. Aquaduck Gold Coast, Aquaduck Sunshine Coast and Southern Cross Tours. I have done the early mornings, the payroll, the OTA commissions and the off-season cash flow. That is the whole point of how I work. I am not coaching from theory.

  • how dramatic that sounds.

    Before COVID I loved being in business. I loved the challenge and the growing. When COVID hit, it all changed. I was consumed with worry, the businesses were all I thought about, and my whole focus was making sure they survived on my watch. I took everything on, put too much pressure on myself and the people around me, and showed up fine on the outside while I was coming apart on the inside.

    I ran them for another year, then I knew something had to give. Nine months later I walked away. I tell operators this because the fragility I felt is structural in most tourism businesses, not bad luck. And it is fixable, which is the work I do now.

  • I have run the businesses. Most have not. Marketing a tour, a unique stay or a restaurant is not the same as marketing a product off a shelf, and running one is different again. I work in your real numbers, in plain language, on your business, not a generic framework. The structure I use is consistent. The conversation is always yours.

PRACTICAL

  • It depends on what we find, but most operators get clarity fast because we start with the numbers. In the Tourism Profit Program you will know your real gross margin and your profit per product inside the first few weeks. Acting on what we find is where the money is, and that is what the twelve weeks are for.

  • Yes. The coaching is 1:1 on Zoom, so where you are does not matter. I work with operators around Australia.

  • The Tourism Profit Program is $349 per session, twelve sessions, paid weekly. Business Improvement Coaching for larger operators is discussed individually after the Tourism Profit Review, because it is shaped around the business. The Health Check and the Profitability Clarity Call are both free.

  • Take the free Tourism Business Health Check. Ten minutes, online, and it tells us both where your business stands and which way of working together is right for you.